Hi Michael
Sadly I’m not a medic what I will say after my lung cancer op my breathing improved I assume because I had part of the lung removed it opened up the airways , with the walking I do my oxygen level is steady at 98 , I only wish I could be more helpful, but I am so glad your breathing has improved.
Take care
Eric

@A MyCOPDTeam Member, I have only been in the hospital over night with one exacerbation. They gave me antibiotics and breathing treatments and prednisone and I was amazed how well I felt. I was not as sick as I am now , so it worked well. I am so used to exacerbations that I think I know when I need to get meds. The doctor orders antibiotics and prednisone and you take all pills until they are gone.( Very important ) Hopefully it gets rid of the infection that caused the exacerbation and you don’t have to repeat the meds. My breathing is better after I take prednisone. I have diabetes and prednisone is horrible on folks with diabetes. My doctor won’t give it to me on a regular basis . Also can affect the adrenal gland . So I take all my prednisone and antibiotics and breathe better and gradually it wears off . 🙁

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A MyCOPDT...

@A MyCOPDTeam Member - I have no magic answer. Copd does its "thing". I hope you can go to pulmonary rehab. It has really helped me in the past - before the pandemic. I went to one session early this year but some family tragedies kept me from a steady flow of the sessions. My pulmonary doctor just gave me a referral for another session and I hope and pray I can go to all 24, twice a week, with no problems to interfere. And I have a supply of prednisone to use if I believe its necessary. I often only have to take one or two tablets. I do wish you luck and good care.

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A MyCOPDT...

It has never been explained for me either. The ER docs are so busy and just stop by to see your stats to make sure things are going in the right direction. The nurses actually know more about the treatment for exacerbation than the Docs do.

But the ingredients are there. With the nebulizer treatment every 4-6 hours, IV antibiotics and steroids you get pumped up with almost 20 times the normal amounts we can ever get at home with the Action Pack prescriptions.

But the magic solution is staring you in the face the whole time.🤔 From rolling in the sliding doors on a gurney until the time you walk out to the car or in a wheelchair, you have a saline IV in the arm the whole time. WATER is the magic key to pull the mucus out of the entire body, not just the lungs. It's my secret to maintain the Day-to-day and I'm sticking to IT. Your mileage may vary. SEE here:
https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2023/05/dear-...

As you regain your strength, get more active each day. Stay regular with the meds you have, and talk to your Doc about adding others if you feel they will benefit. Take your temps and O2 often and ADD the daily fluids to see if it makes a difference. Glad you are on the mend again. Take care.

It could be that this antibiotic is the one you really needed for this particular bug. Often they don't do studies to determine exactly what bug you have and which antibiotic works best for which bug; they simply give you a broad spectrum antibiotic and hope it does the trick. Sometimes I think that just gets the bug under control for awhile and then the bug fights off the antibiotic and wins for a period of time, so you never really get over whatever it is. It sounds like you've finally gotten rid of whatever caused the exacerbation.